Declare Border-less Uganda and Kenya, Luo Elders Charge Museveni and Ruto

Uganda’s President, Yoweri Museveni (L) Kenya’s William Ruto (M), and former Kenya Prime Minister, Raila Odinga (R) are now fully decorated Luo Elders

HABARI DAILY I Kampala, Uganda I Odungi Randa, the Ker (cultural leader) of Luo, has seen it fit to declare two Presidents, Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni and Kenya’s William Ruto, in addition to former Kenya Prime Minister, Raila Odinga, Luo Elders.

They were handed their first insurmountable task, which is to declare a border-less Uganda and Kenya, where citizens can roam freely without being intimidated by the authorities.

The trio was handed a traditional seat of the ruler, the crown of leadership, a traditional cloth of an elder, a shield alongside a spear for protection, and a whisk for wishing peace to the people.

This was at the closure of the fourth edition of Piny Luo Festival, held  in Siaya County, Kenya on Thursday.

The regional annual cultural ceremony held at the Got Ramogi Hill shrines, where the three newly crowned elders and other participants, who included the governor of Siaya County, James Orengo, were taken on a tour of Jaramogi Oginga Mausoleum and the four Luo traditional huts, representing the four sons of Luo.

In his address, President Museveni said that by 1900 the whole of Africa had been colonized and had been under the slave trade for 600 years, which was a humiliation of Africa.

The presidents and elders body enjoying a Kodak moment

“But in 1912, a new group of educated people started the African National Congress (ANC) of South Africa, which was the beginning of the modern resistance by the African people,” he said.

Brotherhood of Africans

He added that they had four historical missions of chasing the foreigners and getting independence, creating prosperity for the African people, and ensuring strategic security by ensuring that Africa should not be under threat from anybody.

“The fourth mission was to use the brotherhood of the African people to achieve the other three missions. Among the four historical missions, we achieved the independence of African states, but integration was forgotten,” he noted, emphasising that this has dragged the prosperity of East Africa and its strategic security, which can only be achieved through political federation.

Museveni hailed the past and present leaders, who include the late Julius Kambarage Nyerere of Tanzania, Daniel Toroitich Arap Moi of Kenya, Mwai Kibaki, Uhuru Kenyatta, and now President William Ruto, who have been very supportive of the East African Integration process.

The attendees cheer the leaders on

He presented a gift of four plaques to Luo cultural leaders, which contained a publication in the Uganda Agus containing a picture of the East African leaders, including former Kenyan President Jomo Kenyatta, former Tanganyika President Julius Nyerere, and former Ugandan President Milton Obote, who met in Nairobi on 3rd June 1963 and declared that they would form the federation of East Africa.

One community, different nationalities

Concerning Raila Odinga’s candidacy for the Chairmanship of the African Union Museveni urged the EAC block to stand behind him.

President Ruto said that the festival is testimony to the fact that we can belong to one community but also belong to different nationalities and that we can belong to different communities but also belong to one nationality.

“As we celebrate this culture to build our bond and friendship with East Africans, we must use the artificial boundaries that exist not as roadblocks but as stepping-stones and not as hurdles but as bridges for our people, their goods and services to cross borders between our countries because there cannot be a thriving Kenya or Uganda without a successful East Africa,” he stated.

Presidents Museveni and Ruto awed

About the candidature of Raila Odinga for AU Chairmanship, President Ruto said the Piny Luo celebration confirms that their quest as East Africa to put forward his (Odinga’s) candidature is the correct thing to do.

Nyang’oma Technical College unveiled

“He is not for Kenya alone but for East Africa to champion the unity and progress and the success of Africa as a continent.”

Ruto then announced the official opening of the Lamogi campus of Nyang’oma Technical Training College which is to immediately admit students beginning this January.

“We have built that institution at a cost of Ksh 400 million. My instructions are that a plaque be put there to show that this institution was opened in the presence of Mzee Yoweri Kaguta Museveni so that we also use it as a landmark for the celebration of East Africa,” he said.

Odinga said that East Africans have been held hostage to the borders imposed by colonial times, and their view is that these borders should stop being impediments to the prosperity of East Africa and Africa.

The newly indicted Luo elders sit in the midst of their people

He suggested that prosperity should be achieved through, among others, promoting trade first among the Africans, which is only 15%, yet that of the Europeans is at 70% and that of Asia at 60%.

Border-less East Africa

“Africa trades more with others than itself. We’re saying let us open our borders so that people can move freely,” Rt. Hon. Odinga said.

James Orengo, the Governor of Siaya County, urged the two Presidents to begin with the federation of Kenya and Uganda.

“If it is the Federation of the willing, possibly one of the things that can come out of this Piny Luo festival, you can pronounce today that beginning from now on, any Kenyan can walk across to Uganda and any Ugandan can walk across to Kenya. It would be the beginning of the journey of the East African federation, and we want to see it in our lifetime,” he said.

President Museveni getting the anointing from a Luo elder

The three-day event that kicked off on December 31st, 2024, under the theme “Celebrating the Roots of Our Culture and Heritage”, focused on promoting unity, peace, and reconciliation among various Luo communities across the region.

The cultural pilgrimage attracted different groups of Luo luminaries across Africa, such as Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Chad, the Central African Republic, and other nations, led by their respective “Kers” (cultural leaders). The Ugandan groups included the Alur, Acholi, Padhola, and Jo Nam, while others included the Alur of the DRC.